My first few days at BERDO have been full of stops and starts. Work progresses but slowly. Power outage and slow (and no) internet connectivity are the usual suspects. The employees at BERDO are undaunted however. Improvisation and innovation keep them afloat. They shake off the inertia that sets in as a result of these uncalled-for breaks and get back to work with the same enthusiasm.

There is a lot that goes on at the BERDO office at Mirpur, Dhaka – a school for the visually impaired, a job placement cell that works to map disabled individuals to potential employers, an IT training facility that helps visually impaired people develop basic computer skills, recording of audio tapes for a talking library and printing of material for the Braille library.  And then there is the small matter of co-ordinating activities in the two field offices at Tongi and Barisal. While the field office at Tongi provides medical and pathological services for the prevention of disability, drives a campaign to advocate disability rights and provides micro-credit to the disabled, the office at Barisal concentrates on providing micro-credit and community-based rehabilitation.

This video is an introduction to the activities carried out at BERDO in a day. In the weeks to follow, I shall try to tease out the intricacies of each of the tasks carried out at BERDO, the ways in which they have been able to enhance people’s capabilities and do away with the social stigma of being disabled, the challenges that they face and the way forward.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANqVq2pSYas